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| Angelika/Mike Schilli |
NEW NEW NEW: San Francisco Urban Hikes Collection
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Angelika Many of San Francisco's problems are self-inflicted and have accumulated over years. This happens because there is no opposition on the city council. All members belong to the Democratic Party, and their stances on policy only differ in terms of how progressive they are. At first glance, one might think that a council that is firmly in the hands of one party would get a lot done, but unfortunately, this is not the case. On the contrary: The most absurd ideas are being implemented, and there are no opposing voices to insist on checking whether the measures actually work or are just a waste money.
The redesign of San Francisco's City Hall Plaza (specifically a portion of the UN Plaza) in the city's center is a good example. You should know that in San Francisco, City Hall borders on a rather seedy neighborhood called the Tenderloin. Since we have lived here, drug dealers have been selling on the plaza in front of City Hall. Loyal reader of our publication may remember that I worked in the Tenderloin for quite some time many years ago. During my active time in the neighborhood, there were a lot of undercover cops who caught drug dealers and then arrested them.
Later, the city entered a critical phase where drug dealers were simply allowed to operate freely, because supposedly according to some supervisors, they were just poor chaps who should not be arrested, no matter how many fatal overdose victims they caused by their drug business. Fast forward a few years, and the fentanyl crisis has made the situation by an order of magnitude worse, resulting in San Francisco having more drug-related deaths than coronavirus deaths even during pandemic times. Also, the numbers of drug-related deaths have continued to rise even after the pandemic. So far in 2023, there have been 752 drug-related deaths, most of them caused by fentanyl overdoses.
Then again, we'll have elections in the city next year and there is a growing sense of panic among those representatives because many residents of San Francisco have become increasingly frustrated with their politicians' laissez-faire attitude. Coincidentally, we've noticed a frenzy wave of actionism initated by those panicking politicians, inspired by the motto "Our city needs to be more beautiful."
In the context of this program, UN Plaza, a part of the City Hall Plaza, recently received two million dollars worth of cosmetic surgery. The city council decided it was time to evict the drug dealers from the plaza and chose to build a small skatepark instead. Additionally, there are table tennis tables, foosball tables, and some fitness machines available for public use, as well as Zumba classes. At first glance, there is nothing wrong with this, but I don't quite understand why a skatepark would scare away drug dealers.
And then there's another problem. For over 40 years, a weekly market has been held twice a week on the UN Plaza in front of City Hall. This is an important source of fresh produce at reasonable prices for residents of the Tenderloin neighborhood, as there is no supermarket in the area. The market had to move due to renovation and is now located on the other side of UN Plaza. However, the temporary location is much smaller, so many vendors have had to reduce their booth sizes. They were of course not enthusiastic about not being consulted on the redesign plans at all. Furthermore, they cannot park their vans behind their stands anymore and must now park them further away, which is a high risk in a city where car windows are broken instantly if even a cable is visible inside. This would be a problem that needs to be addressed, but as mentioned, only superficial improvements are being made before the elections.
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